"Any modification to the exterior of any structure located on such property shall comply with the historic property preservation requirements."

East Clinton Elementary (Michael Mercier / Huntsville Times)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- As the first suitor prepares to plead his case for tearing down East Clinton Elementary, Superintendent Casey Wardynski wonders if it wouldn't be better if the state in 2009 had given the land to the city instead of the school board.

That's because there is no guaranteed sale and not a whole lot of money at stake, at least in terms of school construction budgets. But there is a good bit of public interest in the future of a 76-year-old building in the middle of the city's historic districts.

So far, Wardynski said he's had four offers for the prime property. But all want to tear down the school and replace it with homes.

That's a problem. And one with no clear end in sight.

For now, East Clinton Elementary School is promised to Bob Broadway, owner of the Broadway Group, which has developed numerous Dollar General stores across the state. The Broadway Group has agreed to pay $1.56 million.

Huntsville school board president Laurie McCaulley said that the 3.6 acres would be used for residential development. Wardynski said he understands that Broadway plans to build just one home.

But by state law, anyone who wants to alter the exterior of East Clinton must first win approval of the nine-member Huntsville Historic Preservation Commission.

"There is a lot of neighborhood talk about what is going on," said Lucy Brown, past
president and a current board member of the Old Town Historic District, the
local designated historic district in which East Clinton School is located. Brown said an informal survey of neighbors found roughly 8 in 10 oppose demolition of the school.

"No one wants to see the building torn down," said Brown this morning.

Normally, the school board is immune to zoning restrictions. But the deed, or lack thereof, for East Clinton created an unusual set of circumstances.

When the school board announced plans to consolidate East Clinton and Blossomwood, the board learned that the school system never owned the land. In 2009, the Legislature gave the Huntsville school board clear ownership and the ability to sell the land.

But the legislative conveyance, sponsored by former Rep. Randy Hinshaw, included this line: "Any modification to the exterior of any structure located on such property shall comply with the historic property preservation requirements."

That means the board or the buyer must secure a "certificate of appropriateness" in order to raze the building.

If Broadway, who struck a deal with the board earlier this month, can't win approval, then he can walk away from the deal.

"They have 90 days to make themselves happy," said J.R. Brooks, school board attorney. "They have the right to back out without any financial detriment."

As of this morning, Brown said, the Broadway Group had not presented their plans for the site to the historic commission. Broadway did not return repeated calls for comment.

Bert Moore, a real estate attorney with Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne, did much of the sleuthing that led to the 2009 legislative act. It turns out, according to Moore, neither the city nor the school system owned the land when the school was built.

The property was first acquired by trustees of Green Academy on Dec. 30, 1822 and eventually transferred to later trustees, said Moore. But the school closed. The trustees later leased the land to the city. The trustees then died and the city quit renewing the lease.

"The trustees no longer existed," said Moore. "In 1936, when East Clinton was built, there were no living trustees and it had never been conveyed to the city."

The legislative act does not require the land be used for a school.

Brown said she also understands Broadway had plans for a single home. She said that might appear out of place among the smaller Victorian and craftsman cottages that ring the school. "I'm sure there will be community opposition," she said.

In the summer, Brown and others in the neighborhood had also voiced concern the school could sit abandoned, like other consolidated schools in Huntsville.

The commission next meets on Jan. 14 at 4:30 p.m. on the ground floor of the Public Services Building, 320 Fountain Circle. Broadway might make his case then. As for commission opinions on tearing down the school, Brown said: "It depends on how they vote. Who knows?"